International Visitors

On December 2, 2024, Okayama University Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Professor Seiji Suga visits NTNU. Okayama University is a comprehensive university founded in 1949. Since its establishment, the university has now expanded into ten faculties and seven graduate schools, four research institutes, a university hospital and several other centers. It is home to around ten thousand undergraduate students, three thousand graduate students, and four thousand faculty and staff. The university currently has four lush campus that experience mild climate in Okayama City.

 

Professor Suga was welcomed by NTNU Executive Vice President Kwun-Min Chen, Vice President for International Affairs Professor Yi-De Liu and Associate Vice President for School of Continuing Education Professor Hui-Ling Sung. Okayama University has been NTNU’s partner university since 2013. Okayama University’s Graduate School of Environmental, Life, Natural Science and Technology, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, School of Engineering currently has an MOU and student-exchange agreement with NTNU College of Technology and Engineering.

 

As everyone settled down in the meeting room, Prof. Chen and Prof. Suga exchanged light conversation about their mutual field: chemistry. Easy banter about previous overseas study experiences eventually led to the afternoon’s main agenda: internationalization. With both universities continuously striving to meet internationalization goals, it is not surprising that the topic of discussion centered on how to cooperate to best provide each university’s students and faculty the knowledge, skills, and experience to excel in the international field. Prof. Liu expressed that a lot of Taiwanese students want to pursue studies in Japan, but a common hindrance that they meet is language barrier.

 

In order to pursue Taiwan’s bilingual goals, as well as to encourage more international students to come to Taiwan, NTNU offers more than 800 EMI courses. Prof. Suga states that Okayama University is working on providing more EMI courses for non-Japanese speakers. Okayama University currently has a Global Discovery Program, which is an English program offering courses through which students can discover which areas they want to explore and cooperate with other students from different cultures and study backgrounds.

 

Prof. Suga expressed hopes that through these discussions, both universities can continue to work together to provide avenues for more Taiwanese students to pursue studies in Okayama University. Prof. Sung expresses optimism that with direct flights to Okayama City now available, it has become easier to arrange exchanges to Okayama University.